The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1887-09-24
IMPURE ITALIAN WINES,


An Americans Experiences inNaples and
Other Cities of Italy.
We have been assured that there is
30 liquor problem in lands where wine
is native. We have even been told
that the use of wine is a necessity
which we would be forced to recop-
nize when we visited Italy. Truth is
better than ones theories, so we came
with free minds. At the same time
we could not see how change of To-
cation could change the scientific fact
that alcohol is a poison; or how alco-
hole, and therefore poisonous, wine
could be good for the human system
in its normal state.
May % we met some gay Amer
leans in Naples who, in warm climate
and with summer advancing, were
drinking not only the wine of
the province but the wine of various
provinces of Italy. and German beer.
One of them assured us that the Ma
pies water was very dangerous, and
that he had not tasted it since his ar
rival. He did not know that Naples
has spent twenty-six million dollars in
the last six years in bringing the purest
mountain water into the city from
springs forty miles distant.
Besides, an old wine-drinker the day
before. while pressing us to take some
wine of the province, assured us that
wine from the other provinces was
badly adulterated. He said: NAPLES
is the most fertile wine district in
Italy. Wine brought in from other
provinces must pay the cost of Ians-
portation and an import duty, and yet
it is sold at the price Of native wine.
How is this possible without large adul-
teration" We conveyed this CHEEKY in
formation to our gay American friends,
and assured them that they had proba-
bly, taken more poison into their svs-
tens already than ten years use of
Naples water would have given them
Two or three days later we wentinto
the country in company with our wine
drinker from Naples. He carried
along some of the pure native wine he
had pressed us to use few days be-
fore. We decided to go to a country
house to eat our lunch, in order that
wemight meet the farmers and get a
glimpse of peasant life. The peasants
readily admitted us, and in the socia-
billy of the lunch our friend brought
7. out his bottle of wine and treated the
peasants. Three or four of them
tasted the wine and passed it on to
others, but not one drank it. We
thought the peasants recognized this
pure wine as very superior and hest
tated to drink much of so costly an
article. But when our friend urged
chem to drink the farmer replied
"Your wine is not pure. Let me bring
you some of my wine" And our
friend admitted that the peasant wine
tasted very different from the pure (?)
wine he had urged us only few days
before to drink. The farmer consoled
our wine-drinbing friends by assuring
them that the peasants seldom put any
thing more than water into wine
before carrying it to their city
customers. But even on this sup
position, Americans visiting Naples
take ii beverage about half of which
comes from some country well which
may have been receiving impurities
from the house or barn for a hundred
years, while the other half contains al.
coholic poison, in preference to q
water which chemical analysis shows
to be the purest in Europe! They then
rail at temperance fanatics running
their health for an idea! What won.
der that we live to recount the dan.
gers through which we have passed!
Yesterday we met another Ameri.
can, and the inevitable temperance
topic coming up-even in Italy-thi:
gentleman said: II am an abstainei
at home, but used wines in South.
ern Europe from February to the
last of May. This use brought on ;
very uncomfortable rash OF skin dis